A day after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said he was against the construction of Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal as Punjab did not have enough water to share with other states, the Haryana government on Thursday hit back saying that it would be unable to supply drinking water to the national capital as the Delhi chief minister had stood against the interests of farmers of the neighbouring state.
There has been a long-standing dispute over the supply of drinking water between Delhi and Haryana. The water supply in the capital was recently badly affected after Jat protesters damaged the Munak canal, which supplies about 500 cusec water every day to Delhi. But prompt action by the Haryana government restored the drinking water supply to the city.
In a letter to Mr Kejriwal, Haryana water minister Om Prakash Dhankhad said his state gets 3.5 million acres feet (MAF) water, while Delhi receives 0.2 MAF of the Ravi-Vyas canal from the Nangal Dam. He said 0.2 MAF Haryana-Delhi water comes through Bhakra canal.
The letter said: “The water which comes from Bhakra canal is being routed through the Haryana branch of western Yamuna canal to the national capital. Due to this burden, Haryana can not utilise 496 cusec water which is meant for the state. Apart from this, even additional 330 cusec water is being sent to Delhi by Haryana through its western Yamuna canal.”
Mr Dhankhad said that though the water of Ravi-Vyas was available for both Haryana and Delhi through Nangal dam, there were no means available to bring it to the two states. He said that the only possible way of bringing this water was Punjab’s SYL canal which Mr Kejriwal has opposed due to his political gains.
Mr Dhankhad said by opposing the construction of the SYL canal, Mr Kejriwal being the CM of Delhi himself was working against the cause of his own state. He threatened that after Mr Kejriwal’s stand on the SYL canal, his state will not be able to supply water to Delhi through its prevailing canal system as he was standing against the interests of Haryana’s farmers. He said the Delhi CM should construct his own canal system to bring water from the Nangal Dam and Tajewala to the national capital.
